News Article

Rosa's Law (Pub. L. 111-256), signed in 2010, amended sections of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Rehabilitation Act), by removing the words “mental retardation” and replacing these outdated terms with the words “intellectual disability” or “intellectual disabilities.”

The law is named for Rosa Marcellino, a girl with Down Syndrome who was nine years old when it was signed into law. Then-President Barack Obama underscored Rosa's influence at the signing ceremony by pointing out that she "worked with her parents and her siblings to have the words 'mentally retarded' officially removed from the health and education code in her home state of Maryland."

Final regulations, published on July 11, 2017, implement these statutory changes in applicable Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services regulations.